Daily Dothttp://www.dailydot.com/Daily Dot Articleen-usMon, 25 Feb 2013 18:08:53 +00004chan votes for Hitler as the smartest person in historyhttp://www.dailydot.com/society/4chan-hitler-smartest-person-history/<p><img src='//cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/49/6a/496ab5d1654c543d62a0d879145ca4ec.jpg'></p><p>
Adolf Hitler has been called a lot of things&mdash;a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/22/movies/human-yes-but-no-less-a-monster.html?pagewanted=all&amp;src=pm">monster</a>, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-402602/Hitler-Stalin-possessed-Devil-says-Vatican-exorcist.html">possessed</a>, and <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-04-28/news/0104280161_1_nazi-leader-nazi-era-cia">insane</a>.</p>
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Now the mass murderer is being called the &quot;smartest person in history,&quot; thanks to 4chan.</p>
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The dictator has topped a public poll on <a href="http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/smartest-people-history.asp">The Top Tens</a> which has asked people to vote on the smartest people in history. Hitler edged out the likes of Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Isaac Newton thanks to a post on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/1955k4/this_is_happening_right_now/">Reddit&#39;s r/4chan</a> forum linking to the poll.</p>
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<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/2/24/hitlertop10.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 413px;" /></p>
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The Top Tens poll is just the latest one 4chan has decided to have some fun with over the past six months.</p>
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In August, 4chan hijacked a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/4chan-mountain-dew-name-contest/">public Mountain Dew poll </a>which asked fans to vote for the name of a new flavor. The top results were &ldquo;Gushing Granny,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fapple,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Hitler did nothing wrong.&quot;</p>
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In November, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/4chan-kim-jong-un-time-person-year/"><em>Time</em> magazine&#39;s Person of the Year poll</a> was gamed by 4chan, Internet Chat Relay (IRC), and Reddit users to have North Korean leader Kim Jong-un take the top spot.</p>
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Kim collected 5.9 million votes thanks to a Java script created by IRC user _js5. The script was also used to spell &ldquo;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/hackers-time-person-year-kjugaschambers/">KJUGASCHAMBERS</a>&rdquo; using the first letter of each candidate&#39;s name. Kim ultimately <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/obama-kim-jong-un-time-person-year/">lost the cover to President Barack Obama</a>, but was crowned the people&#39;s choice winner.</p>
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4chan followed up this epic prank with <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/4chan-nba-all-star-white-men-team-voting/">Operation White Man Can Jump</a> which <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/nba-4chan-white-players-all-star-game-vote/">unsuccessfully attempted</a> to have only lighter-skinned players start in the 2013 NBA All-Star Game.</p>
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The discussion of Hitler&#39;s intelligence is older than the Internet itself. <a href="http://www.debate.org/debates/Adolf-Hitler-was-an-Intelligent-Individual/2/">Numerous websites</a> have tried to tackle the claim over the years. The top comment on The Top Tens poll sums up how many of these online discussions over the years have evolved.</p>
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&quot;Though his motivation was evil, he was indeed brilliantly manipulative, and because of this combination of both brilliance and world impact, he deserves to be on the list,&quot; read the top <a href="http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/smartest-people-history.asp">comment</a>, which has received more than 2,100 thumbs up.</p>
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Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/keremtapani/8492148362/">Kerem Tapani</a>/Flickr</p>
fernando@dailydot.com (Fernando Alfonso III)Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:08:53 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/4chan-hitler-smartest-person-history/Society4chan